Local utility services deeply affect the overall quality of life of a country’s population. For this reason service providers should pay strong attention to risk management practices, but also to the external communication of both the risk exposure and the risk responses. Following a qualitative methodology, this paper aims at exploring the risk management and risk disclosure practices of five Italian listed local utility companies combining two research methods: questionnaire and document analysis. Results show that these Italian listed local utilities are characterized by different maturity levels of risk management practices, which are not extensively disclosed in public reports and documents. Interestingly, the link between the level of disclosure and maturity of risk management practices is confirmed just for those companies that seem to be the most mature in terms of risk management.
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Keywords: Risk disclosure, public utilities, risk management
